


Ray

by Exterminatorviolence



Series: Ray AKA The Ib Game AU [1]
Category: Rooster Teeth/Achievement Hunter RPF
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Ib AU, M/M, Series, Supernatural Elements
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-14
Updated: 2014-07-14
Packaged: 2018-02-08 21:49:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,573
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1957338
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Exterminatorviolence/pseuds/Exterminatorviolence
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Ray visits an art gallery together with his family, the least of his worries is to get lost, right? This happens. But still; this is the least of his worries. </p><p>Ray's world is turned upside down when the gallery of Guertana comes to life, trapping him within a space where the exhibitions are malevolent and do not take kindly to intruders. Ray must escape this horror-filled museum before his sanity slips or the gallery traps him there forever. </p><p>Ib game AU with more romance. Part 1 of 3</p>
            </blockquote>





	Ray

**Author's Note:**

> Have you ever played the game Ib? If you haven't you can download it for free, just google it, or watch someone play it on YouTube. 
> 
> I literally own nothing in this except for some of the dialogue between Ray and Joel. The rest of it is owned by Kouri. The summary is taken from the Ib Wiki page. This is part one of probably three, and Joel really only comes in at the end of this part. 
> 
> If you have played the game before, you'll know that Ib is like, nine years old and Garry's like twenty something. Ray is seventeen in this and Joel is twenty four. Bit of an age gap, yes, but hey, it's Joelay.

Chapter One

\-----

Ray really didn't want to go to an art museum with his parents no matter how much "education" there was going to be. The only reason his parents got him out of the house was because his mom threatened to sell his Xbox; and since when did his mom make threats anyway?

But nonetheless, that was how Ray found himself standing in the lobby of some art museum that didn't even have decent art. Or maybe it did, Ray didn't actually walk past the lobby yet. He was still standing behind his parents who were talking to the lady working there, with her sickly sugar voice. Ray doesn't really care how much it costs, doesn't care that his parents lie about his age; making him younger so they can get a discount and take advantage that he's short for seventeen.

"You can go explore the museum if you want, Ray. You don't have to stay with us." His mom turns to look at him, and Ray thinks he see's a hint of her earlier threat sparkle in her eyes. Ray's never noticed until now, but his mom's eyes are kinda red, and kinda freaky to look at. Ray quickly nods and jumps a little when his father puts a hand on his shoulder. With a nod to him, Ray wanders away. "Oh, Ray!" His mom shouts for him and he turns back. "Did you remember to bring your handkerchief?" Ray nods mutely and walks away.

He notices that there are windows on the wall, but they're too far up the wall for him to look into. He shrugs as he continues to walk. They're probably just to the maintenance rooms. He continues to walk and randomly look at some pictures on the wall. None of them really stick out to him, and he doesn't really think they're all that good. But what did he know about modern art and all that anyway?

He walks past a creepy mural on the floor of some deep sea creature and shudders, trying to ignore it. There are more people at this gallery than Ray had initially thought. He walks past a rose sculpture that he finds intriguing, and he tries to see around the mass of people that are surrounding it. When he realizes that he can't see the sculpture, he sighs and turns to walk away, passing by a guy standing looking at a painting of some squares.

Ray continues to walk around, and sees another sculpture of headless statues with dresses on that remind him of the Powerpuff Girls, and he vaguely wonders why that's so creepy when they're just sculptures. He shakes his head and walks into a women who is looking at a painting intently.

"She's a beautiful woman," The woman says, and Ray looks up at the painting. He agrees that the woman is beautiful, with long brown hair and a flowing red dress. She's sitting down, and has red eyes that remind Ray of rubies. "I wonder if she was real?" The woman looks down at Ray. "Guertana wasn't known to paint real people, but who knows. There's always a chance." She turns back to the painting and Ray quickly walks away.

He doesn't really look at the other paintings too much until he finds that he's wandered down to an empty hallway. There's a giant framed painting on the wall and it looks like a kid scribbled it. He looks at the title, "??? World", Ray can't figure out what the first word is; he thinks it's something in French.

The lights flicker and Ray looks up at the lights. He frowns and turns around to try to find his parents. He walks back to the lobby and realizes eerily that there's no one in the gallery anymore. He gets to the lobby.

"Mom? Dad?" He shouts, but no one answers. He frowns again, and the lights flicker a couple of times before going out. "What the fuck is going on?" He mutters. He can still see around and walks up to one of the windows on the wall from earlier. He stands on his toes and tries to peer in. He jumps back when red paint drips down from the other side. "The fuck?" He gasp and backs away.

He swallows hard and walks around the gallery again, once more stopping in front of the rose sculpture. He reads the title, "??? of Sprit".

"Man," Ray mutters. "This guy loves his French words."

He continues to read the description. "Beautiful at a glance, but if you get too close, it will ??? pain.  
It can only bloom in ??? bodies." Damn, did this artist guy just like to put French words randomly around?

He steps back. "Sounds like something Tuxedo Mask would say...Though without all the French."

Ray continues to walk around and nearly screams (in a very manly way), when he hears someone banging on a window. "Uh...Hello?" Ray calls out tentatively, but again, silence meets his words. He shivers slightly and walks back to the giant painting where the lights first flickered. He notices that there's some blue paint dripping from the frame and he leans in closer to look at it.

*BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG*

"What the hell?!" He shouts and jumps back, his heart pounding in his ribs. He looks at the floor and see's letters that weren't there before.

COME RAY

"Is someone here?" Ray calls out, scared. "This isn't funny!" No one comes to his rescue though. He turns back to the painting and see's that the blue dripping paint has turned into words. "'come down below ray ill show you someplace secret.'" He reads aloud. "Why doesn't this have proper grammar?" Ray murmurs to himself. "It's like a little kid wrote it." He walks away, his heart still beating harder than it should, though it calmed down slightly.

"Where's down below?" Ray asks no one. He wanders past some more paintings and see's the creepy fish mural and notices blue footsteps leading to it. "Down below..." Ray mutters and despite everything telling him to just leave the gallery, he walks over to the painting and looks down at it.

He takes a deep breath. "Well," He says. "My video gaming life has prepared me for anything." He walks to the painting and puts his foot in and to his shock and somewhat horror, his foot goes down. He swallows hard. "Here goes nothing."

\-----

Chapter Two

He walked down a staircase into what seemed like a basement. The walls are a dark blue and he notices two mirrored paintings of floating rocks on either side of the staircase; the one on the left red, and the on the right blue. He walks to the right down a hallway. The walls all read "come come come come come" in random orders. When he reaches the end of the hallway he sees a night table with a rose in a vase sitting on top of it.

"Oh, sweet, a rose. Fuck yeah I'm taking that," He mutter to himself and he grabs the rose from the vase and places it carefully in his pocket, leaving it so the petals stick out of his pocket.

He pushes the nightstand to the side and see's a blue door that matches the wall. He opens it and thanks whatever's up there that it's not locked. He walks into the room and see's a single painting of a pale woman with blue hair. Her eyes are closed and she has a serene smile on her face. The hair goes down past the frame though and drips down the wall. Ray swallows and walks over to an object on the ground. He bends down to pick it up. It's a blue key with a tag on it.

"Blue Room Key" it reads.

"Well, that's convenient. I hope all the keys have tags on them." He puts the key in his other pocket. When he stands back up he see's that the woman in the painting now has a Cheshire cat grin on her face. "Goddamit, where the fuck am I?"

He goes up and reads the title of the painting.

"When the rose dies, so too will you die away."

"The fuck?" Ray whispers and picks the rose up from his pocket. "There's only three petals on this thing." He holds it and leaves the room and looks back at the night table with the vase on it. There's still some water in the vase, and Ray places the rose in it. Some sparkles light up around the rose and he blinks, and pushes his glasses up his face. When he takes the rose out of the vase, he notices that there are five petals on the rose.

There's a piece of paper on the wall near the night table and he reads it. "'You and the rose are one. Know the weight of your own life." He steps back. "So I get hit five times and I die, huh?" He whispers to himself and places the rose back in his pocket.

He walks away and see's that the wall that used to read 'come' now reads, "THIEF THIEF THIEF THIEF".

"I'm not a thief!" He yells at whoever can hear him. "You took me away!"

He continues to walk and see's the two mirrored paintings again, but the staircase is now gone. He walks past without really noticing it and see's another blue door. He frowns and takes out the blue key and tries it in the lock. It clicks, opening, and Ray smiles, stepping inside. He blinks a little when he notices that the all the walls are painted green now.

There's a stand in the middle of a hallway and he reads the description on it. "'Beware of Edges' ...okay." He walks down the middle of the corridor past the stand and yelps when an arm reaches out from the wall to grab him. He stares wide eyed at it and then continues to walk, jumping every time another arm reaches it. When he gets to the end he see's a painting of an ant and a green door. He passes the painting and rattles the handle of the door, only to find it locked. "Of course it is." He mutters.

He walks back past the creepy arms and makes a left going down another hallway. There's pictures of other insects on the wall, and Ray shudders when he see's a spider painting.

"Hey you!" Ray hears a squeak and squeaks himself. He looks down at the noise and see's an ant. "Yeah, you! There's paintings of insects, but I like the painting of me the best!" Ray nods, brows furrowed. "I would love to see the painting again! Could you bring it to me?" Ray nods again. Where did he see a painting of an ant? He racks his brain trying to think of it. He calls himself an idiot out loud and runs back down the arm corridor and takes the ant painting off the wall and brings it back to the ant.

"Here it is." Ray says, slightly out of breath.

"Oh my! Thank you! It does look good, doesn't it?" The ant gushes over the painting, and Ray has a feeling that he's not supposed to answer the question. He smiles awkwardly with too much teeth, and slowly walks away, still holding the painting in his hands.

He see's another green door and turns the handle, sighing in relief when it opens. He groans out loud when he see' a giant whole separating the room in half. He looks down at the painting in his hands and wonders if it could hold his weight. He shrugs and places it down over the hole and hesitantly steps across it, smiling when it holds steady. He hears a squishing noise and looks down. His nose wrinkles in disgust when he see's that the ant in the painting is no longer living and blood is smeared around under the frame. Ray shudders and steps off of the painting.

He goes over to the door on his side of the room and thinks that this is just like a generic puzzle solving game. He should be good at this...maybe he'll even get out of here alive. When he opens the door he's greeted with more green walls. The room is small and Ray see's a green key on the floor in front of a headless statue.

"Well," Ray walks over to the key. "that statue isn't creepy at all." He reaches down and grabs the key. He hears a whispered growl and screams when the statue comes to life and starts chasing him. He reaches the door he came through and runs through it, screaming again when he realizes the statue is still following him. He scrambles across the painting bridge and through the other door. He's breathing heavily and flinches when he hears the sound of glass breaking and something heavy hitting the floor and shattering. He smiles faintly.  
He reluctantly walks through the arm corridor again and unlocks the green door with the green key, smiling when the lock clicks open. If he had a paperclip, maybe he could pick all the locks open. Ray sighs; it's probably not that simple to pick a lock.

The Puero Rican freezes when he enters the room. The whole back wall is in the shape of a cat. There's an opening the looks like a fish in the place where the mouth is supposed to be and Ray figures it's another puzzle. There's two ways he can go , and he turns to the left.

It's a large room with many podiums with curtains drawn over them and it reminds Ray of the museum in Animal Crossing. There's a drawing of a stick figure on the podium closest to the door.

"Let's play Hide and Seek" A note reads next to the stick figure and the stick figure vanishes, making Ray jump. God, Ray was going to have a heart attack before he got out of this place.

He furrowed his brow and looked around the room, staring intently at each curtain pulled podium. He was never good at puzzles like this in video games and he hoped that nothing was going to jump out and kill him. Ray took a deep breath and chose a podium at random and pressed the yellow button that was next to the curtain. He held his breath and chocked on a scream when he heard something fall in the room and the curtain open to reveal the stick figure.

"You win! Here's a prize!" The paint next to the stick figure said. Ray smiled awkwardly, again with too many teeth, and walked over to the painting where something had fallen out of it. He was done questioning the things that were going on in wherever he was...there were arms sticking out of a wall for God's sake.

Ray picked up the fallen object. "It looks like a fish head. Goddamit," He stuck the wooden fish head in his pocket. "How come puzzles never just give you the full solution, it's always in halves." He huffed out a breath and exited the room.

When he passed the kitty wall again he grumbled at it and kept walking to the other hallway. The room he entered next seemed almost like a storage room, with dim lighting and giant sculptures of heads and more headless bodies scattered around the room. There was a crumpled piece of paper on the floor that read, "Materials Storagehouse".  
"Well," Ray said. "I was right."

He heard something shifting behind him, and whipped around to see what it was. One of the giant head sculptures was shaking, almost as if it was about to break. He walked over to it and touched it, snapping back when it hit him.

"Ow, fuck! Jesus Christ!" Ray yelled. He ran over to the other side of the room, and the head followed, making Ray swallow hard, looking for a place to run. The head shifted forward two more times, and than fell over, shattering. There was something amongst the shards.

Ray walked over to it and hesitantly bent down to poke at it. "It's the other half of the fish!" He cried happily and scooped it up, mindful not to cut himself on any of the shards. Upon standing up, he pulled the fish head out of his pocket and stuck the two pieces together, huffing with happiness when they fit together.

He carefully moved around the shards of porcelin and hissed when a piece cut his ankle. He frowned and stepped out of the rubble, realizing that he wasn't going to be able to get out that way. He remembered the rose, and pulled it out of his pocket, huffing again when he noticed that two of the petals were missing.

"I got hit two times, and now the petals are missing. Great." He looked around for a vase and smiled when he found one on top of a cardboard box. He walked over to it and placed the rose in the vase, staring in awe when more sparkles appeared around it and two petals grew. "Look's pretty." He murmured and plucked the rose back and carefully walked out of the storage room and back into the kitty room.

"Here, you weird fucking cat. Here's a wooden fish. I hope you get a splinter." He muttered and pushed the wooden fish into the slot. The giant fish mewoed and Ray wrinkled his nose at the sound. He was always more of a dog person. The wall gave way to reveal another hallway. Ray pushed his glasses up his face and walked through it.

\-----

Chapter Three

Ray walked into another open room that had another hallway continuing straight. The walls were a mustardy color along with a yellow floor. This must be the yellow room. He stopped and debated where he should go, and then figured that if this was a video game, he'd explore everywhere first before moving on. Nodding to himself, he looked to his left and saw two framed panintings hanging on a wall.

One was black and had a red face crudely painted on it while the second one was completely white. He walked toward the first painting and screamed when it spit at him.

"What is with things spitting on me?" He growled and stood up, wiping his shirt where the spit was. "I bet I lost another goddamn petal too." He ducked under the paintings spitting range and squinted at the painting. There appeared to be a dot in the center of the painting, and Ray had to practically glare at it so he could make it out. The number "9" written in light pink. Ray made a mental note to remember it.

Walking past the hallway leading on and to the other side of the room, there was more yellow paint on the wall.

"BEWARE OF LIPS"

"Why's it in all caps?" He wondered aloud. "It's like it's yelling at me." He continued over to the far wall when he saw a pair of red lips. "Those are probably the lips the sign is warning me about." He swallowed thickly. Man they looked creepy as hell. He walked to the hallway that lead forward and stepped on a note. He picked it up. "'Just when you've forgotten'." He read to himself. "Huh?" He set the note back down and walked through the hallway.

"For God's sakes! Enough with the arms!" He yelped when another arm reached through the wall for him. "I know I've got that Latino heat, but Jesus." He wasn't sure why he was trying to joke around when he might die any minute, but it calmed him down.

When he reached the end of the hallway, it split off to a right room and a left room like before. Ray grimaced and took a chance down the right hallway, squeaking a bit when he saw badly made dolls hung by their ankle hanging from the ceiling. All the dolls wore a light blue shirt except for one, which wore a blood red shirt. He made his way to a yellow door at the end of the room, careful not to touch any of the dolls. Ray reached for the doorknob, only to mutter a curse when he realized it was code encrypted.

"X x X + X = ?"

Ray was never good at math, and it didn't help that each 'X' was a different color. Green, light pink, and purple. Well fuck. He only had one number at that was 9. He needed two more. He closed his eyes against frustrated tears and walked to the left room, hoping that there was more numbers there.

He sighed shakily when there was another yellow door in the left room with more yellow painting that read, "The Liar's Room".

He walked in and was greeted with six paintings framed on the wall. Three hung left to another yellow door, and three hung to the right. Each painting bore a person in it with a different colored shirt or dress on, and each painting had yellow paint underneath it.

The one furthest to the right wore a blood red dress with the description, "I agree with the one in yellow!"

The one to the left of the women, wore a white dress with the description, "Stand in front of the statue, go east 2 steps, then south 2 steps. That's the answer!"

The one to the left of that one bores a man with a blue shirt with the description, "The only truth-speaker wears green!"

The door separates the other three paintings. The painting closest to the door has another man with a yellow shirt on and a description that reads, "The one in the white speaks the truth!"

The painting to the left of that one has a woman in a brown dress with the description, "Stand in front of the statue, go east 4 steps, then north 2 steps. That's the answer!"

The last painting to the left of the brown woman has another woman in a green dress with the description, "Stand in fron of the statue, go west 3 steps, then south 1 step. That's the answer!"

After looking at each painting and reading the description, Ray took a step back. "I have to figure out which one is telling the truth? Can't I just say they're all fucking liars?" He crossed his arms and stared at each painting closely as if willing one to tell him which painting was true. He sighed. "No one voted for that brown woman, and I've always liked an outcast. And we are both brown." That seemed like a good reason as any to believe the painting with the brown woman. He nodded to himself and then stepped through the yellow door.

Inside was a room with a tile flooring and a statue standing in the center. He walked up to it and followed the direction from the description. When he reached the destination, he bent down and pulled the tile up. There's a number on the back of the tile, "4" in purple. Ray stood up straight and smiled, proud he had gotten the puzzle right on the first time. He only needed one more number to open that door.

He turned around when he heard bangs and rips and glass breaking from the other room. He frowned and froze im his place until the noise went away. He slowly walked back out to the "Liar's Room" and paled when he saw that each painting had red on the frame edges and the painting with the woman in brown was ripped up with red paint splattered and smeared all over it, the glass from the frame shattered on the ground in front.

"What the fuck..." Ray whispered. The other painting's descriptions were gone, the yellow paint just smeared on and read, "LIAR!" in all capital letters. He quickly left the room, his stomach slightly churning from the gore in the room.

He walked back to the password encrypted code and stared silently at the hanging dolls. Maybe he could try to jump at reach the doll in the blood red shirt. It was the odd one out, Ray thought, it must have the last number on it. It took him three tries to jump and reach the doll, the rope snapping when he yanked the doll down. He looked all over it and finally found a tag sticking out of the doll's shirt. The number "18" in green was written on the tag.

Ray walked back over to the password encrypted door at looked at the equation.

"A green 'X' times a pink 'X' plus a purple 'X'," Ray plugged in the numbers so the equation read '18 x 9 + 4 = ?'. "Okay Ray," He said to himself. "You can solve this. It's just like algebra." He furrowed his brow in concentration and after about a few minutes, he punched in the number '166'. He heard a click, and his heart flurried. He got it right, even he was shocked he got it right.

He opened the door and stepped through it and gasped when he saw sculptures of mini trees spread around a small room with a mural of a tree branch with an apple on it on the back wall. He walked up to a tree that sat in the center of the room and plucked the apple off of the tree. It was wooden.

He walked back out of the room and back to the lips thinking he feeds the apple to it and maybe the lips will reveal a door or something.

"Hungry...Give food..." The mouth groaned. "That food... Give it to me..." Ray frowned and placed the wooden apple in the lips' mouth. The lips ate it with a crunch. "This tasty...I let you pass now...Go through my mouth..." Ray twisted his face in disgust when he saw the mouth open as a doorway, but walked through it none the less.

Ray walked through the mouth passageway and came to another hallway. He was really getting sick of all these hallways to be honest. The hallway was deocrated with six framed paintings of a guillatine being raised up. The last picture at the end of the hallway was near a staircase leading down and the blade was off of the painting. Scared that the blade was actually going to come down on him, Ray didn't move forward anymore and screamed silently when his assumptions were correct and the blade came slamming forward onto the ground, cracking the cement. The blade rose up slowly, and Ray quickly raced down the stairs in case the blade came back.

\-----

Chapter Four

At the bottom of the staircase, the walls and carpet changed to the color red instead of yellow. There was single hallway that led to a red door that was, thankfully, unlocked. The room inside was still all red, and it looked ilke the art gallery that Ray was in before.

Upon entering, Ray first noticed a giant, blue melted sculpture that reminded him of Virgin Mary holding Jesus. It was weird, Ray knows that. Next to the sculpture was a small wall with a small painting on it. Ray didn't bother to read the title or description. Next to that was another Virgin Mary melted sculpture, only this one was red, not blue.

He walked around the sculpture and saw two more paintings on staggering walls. One was of a woman in red; it was the same painting that Ray had saw earlier in the gallery with that weird woman who asked is Guertana painted any real people. The woman was as beautiful as Ray remembered, even if Ray wasn't into girls. He walked up to the painting to read the title.

"The Lady in Red"

"Well, how very straight to the point," Ray muttered. He frowned when the painting started to tip forward and then full on screamed when the woman in the painting came out like the girl from 'The Ring' and started crawlin toward him by her arms.

He ran to the door on the far wall, and rattled the doorknob. It was locked, and Ray was just about five seconds away from shitting his pants in fear. Why was this thing after him? He didn't do anything to that painting, er lady, thing.

All Ray really knew at that moment was that he needed to find a key, and he needed to find it fast. He ran, he more like tripped and stumbled, everywhere in the room to try and find the key. The Puerto Rican stumbled up to where the creepy painting monster was hanging on the wall and spotted something red on the floor. He nearly tripped over his feet trying to grab it and when he made it back to his feet, the Lady in Red was a foot away from him. He gulped and screamed, kicking his foot out when the Lady lunged for him, kicking her straight in the face. The Lady yelped and Ray scrambled up and away from her as fast as he could.

He made it to the door and took a look back and saw the Lady still crawling after him, now with a bloody nose. He messed with the key, trying desperately to get it in the lock, and nearly cried in relief when the door clicked and the doorknob turned. He ran inside and slammed the door shut behind him, leaning his back up against it and closed his eyes.

Ray took a deep breath and tried to calm his heart before it lept out of his chest. He could hear the Lady scratching at the door, but to his relief, she couldn't seem to reach the doorknob to open it.

He opened his eyes and looked around the room he was in. It was another small red room, but it had bookshelves filled with books. It was some sort of weird library. He cautiously wandered between the shelves trying to see if any book stood out to him.

He noticed one that was a brighter color than the rest and pulled it out.

"Moving Storybook Written/Drawn by XXXX -Carrie Careless and the Galette des Rois-"

Ray opened the book and stared at the pages. "... It's a storybook drawn in crayon..." Ray mumbled to himself. He flipped through the pages of the badly drawn story. He wasn't really sure what was going on, but it involved a pie with a coin in it and a girl ate the coin which turned out to be a key and then the girl dies. Yeah, it was confusing.

He placed the book back on the shelf with a grimace, and a cumpled piece of paper falls out and flutters to the floor near Ray's feet. He bends down to pick it up.

"HAVING FUN ?" Is written on it. Ray's hand shakes and he drops the note so it falls back to the ground. He swallows thickly and backs away from it.

Whoever was in charge, or controlling this place was watching Ray. That was weird, Ray didn't give a fuck who was watching him, it was weird and he wanted to leave.

He backs up and hits another bookshelf with a thump. He turns around and see's a green book that's sticking out further than the others and grins to himself. Whoever made this and was watching him sure didn't know how to hide a secret lever to open a door, he thought. He pushed the book in and heard a click sound come from the door on the opposite wall. He grins again and walks over, opening the door.

Everything is still red, and Ray wonders what other colors this place has. He's faced with yet another left and right hallway, and he figures he'll have to go down each hallway anyway multiple times. There's a vase stting on a night table on the far wall with a painting of the same vase above it. He walks over, noticing how everything is quiet, and places his rose in the vase.

The same sparkles come up and quickly die down, revealing that the rose has gained a petal. Ray reads the title of the painting as he's putting his rose back in his pocket.

"'Eternal Blessing'." He looks down to the vase. "'Eternal Blesseing', eh? So the water never runs out?" He notices that the water in the vase is glowing slightly and he thinks that if he wasn't scared out of his mind and trying to survive, he would've appreciated the beauty of the vase.

He walks to the right hallway and see's that's it a long hallway. He walks a couple steps forward and jumps when he see's a man lying on the floor.

"Uh...hello?" He whispers and he inches closes to the man. "Are....are you alive?" He asks. He doesn't get anything in response and shivers. He's never seen a dead guy before in real life, only in video games. And even if the video game has high graphics, it's nothing compared to the shock and horror of seeing a dead person in real life.

Ray walks forward and crouches down to look at the body more closely. The bodies back is rising up and down ever so slowly, and Ray breathes out a sigh of relief that at least the guy isn't dead. He see's that the man is holding a small key in his hand, and he, ever so slowly, reaches out to try and grab it. He freezes a couple of times because he's scared the hand might come up and grab him, but when nothing happens, he shrugs and pries the key out of the man's death grip.

He continues down the hallway and comes to a small room with one room in it. A headless statue is standing in the way, and Ray tries to push it to no avail. He sighes in frustration and realizes that there's no way he's going to be able to tip or move that statue, and he hopes that there's another way somewhere else.

Ray walks back past the man lying on the floor and to the hallway on the left. This hallway is shorter and it comes to a bigger room with a small stage to the right of it. He walks up the steps and see's a vase on a table with no water in it.

There's another door on the other side of the room with something scattered on the ground.

"Are those blue petals?" Ray whispers to himself. They seem to lead to a wall with a painting missing. There's some blood on the ground along with the blue petals and Ray shivers. He reads the title of the missing painting out loud. "'Lady in Blue'." He looks around. "Shit." He mutters.

He figures that the painting is in the small room next to him and he takes the key he got from the stranger and opens the door. The room inside is blank of any decor except for the red walls and carpet and Ray freezes in his spot when he see's the Lady in Blue looking like she's trying to eat a blue rose.

He moves forward a step and shouts when the Lady looks up from the rose and growls at him. He tries to dodge around it or kick at it, but when he tries to kick it the Lady bites his ankle.

"Ah!" Ray shouts. "Fuck you!" He jumps over the Lady and scoops up the blue rose quickly exiting the room. He breathes out in relief, hoping he won't have to see anymore crawling Lady paintings, when he hears a bang on a window and almost pees himself when the Lady in Blue flies through the window, managing to hit Ray in the face, causing him to fall over. He scrambles to his feet and runs back through the door to the hallway with the Eternal Blessing vase.

He places his rose in the vase and swallows, trying to catch his breath. He takes his rose out when it's fully bloomed and than takes out the blue rose that looks a little crushed and dead and carefully places it in the vase.

Ray let's out a breath he didn't know he was holding when the blue rose begins to heal and sprout new petals. The blue rose seems to have more petals the red rose does, and Ray huffs a little at that.

"How come the older guy get's more petals?" He grumbles. He takes the rose back out of the vase and holds it as he makes his way back to the dying guy on the ground in the hallway.

Ray stops in front of the man on the ground. "Hey," he says.

"..........Hmmm?" The man coughs. "What's this? The pain's gone?" The man looks up and Ray goes breathless from the face he see's. The man's eyes widen when he see's Ray and he quickly gets to his feet. "What is it NOW?!" The man demands. "There's nothing left for you to take, I swear!"

Ray silently holds out the blue rose. The man moves forward to take the rose and Ray takes a better look at him. The man has dishevelled black hair that looks like it can't be tamed to look normal. He's wearing a hoodie that's too big for him and shorts that look the same as Ray's. The man is a good five or six inches taller than Ray himself and he has to look up to see his face properly.

"I'm someone from the gallery," Ray says. He takes a step closer to the man. "Are you one too?"

The man nods. "I lost all of my petals, I thought I was going to die back there." He lets out a breath. "Thanks for getting it back, man."

Ray nods. "I mean, I would hope someone would do the same for me if I was dead on the floor," Ray shrugs. He scuffs his checkerboard vans against the carpet.

"What's your name, kid?" The man asks and Ray looks back up at him.

"Ray...I'm seventeen. What's your name, old man?"

The man chuckles. "The name's Joel, I'm 24, I'm not that old yet," The man- Joel - smiles at Ray, causing his to flush. "We should stick together though," Joel scratches the back of his neck. "I'm not sure if anyone else is down here," Joel holds his hand out for Ray to take. "C'mon, Ray, I'll protect you from the big bad monters." Ray smiles and laughs and takes Joel's hand.

Ray wasn't sure if it was because he hadn't seens anyone else who was human until now, but he walked forward and hugged the older man, his arms wrapping around Joel's waist. Joel seemed to be shocked for a second, until his arms came down to rest on Ray.

"It's fine. We'll get out of here, I promise, okay?" Joel whispered into Ray's hair. Ray nodded into Joel's chest but didn't move out of the hug. Ray was just happy he found someone else.

\-----  
End Part One


End file.
